Project Completed

(This one I wrote on July 7th, but I ran out of time on the computer so I am just putting it up now).

The project has finally finished sucessfully. We ran into some minor issues along the way, but everything is up and running. Here are some details about how everything progressed (with more detail than some of you may care to know) :

After a lot of hard work at the beginning of last week, we got all the pipes laid in the ground. We put up the solar panels on Monday, and we placed the pump in the well on Tuesday night. Unfortunately when we pumped water on Wednesday, it was extremely discolored, odorous, and very high in iron (>5 ppm and the EPA standard is <0.3).>

Although our water was unclean, we were still able to check our pipe connections to make sure we didn't have any leaks. Not only did we find six or seven leaks in our system that needed attention, but a major elbow in our distribution system burst which caused water to flood the trench the students had dug. Since plumbing can be a tedious and difficult job (especially when you have over 1000 ft of pipe), we called in a professional who had all the proper equipment. We eventually got the pipes fixed, but we still faced the issue of water quality.

Luckily over time the water quality got better. The iron content continued to decrease, and the bacteria became less and less. By the time we left, our iron content was under the 0.3 ppm required by the EPA, and we had absolutely no fecal coliform bacteria in the water sample. Overall, the project was a huge success and we managed to finish about three days early.

 The success and shortened timeframe can be attributed to the hard work put in by the team throughout the school year.  

Technical aspects aside, I had an incredible two weeks at the school. The students, staff, and administration were all extremely inviting and very interested in the project. I got to know some of the students fairly well. Despite some of their tragic circumstances, they are highly motivated, happy individuals who have some serious goals.  Hopefully things fall into place for then and they are able to become successful and bring a new generation of hope and change to Uganda.